The Oneida County Board is urging the Wisconsin Legislature to “engage in meaningful discussion” when it works to adopt enhanced wake regulations.
The legislature ended this session without passing any legislation regarding boats that make powerful waves, though a bill had been introduced on the topic.
There’s been fierce debate over how heavily the wake boats and the large waves they create should be regulated in Wisconsin.
Lake groups and conservationists point to studies that show these boats have the power to erode shorelines, disturb lake beds, and spread aquatic invasive species.
Wake boat owners and wake sport enthusiasts argue there are other studies that show wake boats can be used with minimal restrictions and without damaging lakes.
Much of the debate has been centered around how far from shore and at what water depth these boats can safely operate from shore without causing damage.
Last year, Sen. Mary Felzkowski (R-Irma) and Rep. Rob Swearingen (R-Rhinelander) brought forth a bill that would amend state law to define wake surfing and wakeboarding. It would put them under the “aquaplaning” category and therefore under those regulations.
It would prohibit wake surfing or wakeboarding on a body of water 50 acres or less or that is less than 400 feet wide. On lakes that are big enough, people couldn’t wakeboard and surf within 200 feet of a shoreline, dock, or other structure in the water.
Both have said the bill was a starting point and expected it to change before being passed.
The Oneida County Board decided to weigh in on the issue. The county is home to more than 1,100 lakes.
Tuesday was the second time the full board considered an advisory resolution on wake boating. The first time the board voted to send it back to the Conservation and UW-Extension Education Committee for revision.
Oneida County Conservationist Michele Sadauskas and her department made recommendations to the committee on the advisory resolution.
She told the board Tuesday those recommendations were based on the research that is currently available and the county’s current 10-year land and water management plan.
“Our number one goal in that plan was to protect our surface waters in the state and, in particular, Oneida County. Our number one activity under that goal was to protect our shorelines,” said Sadauskas.
Sadauskas told the board that this resolution is meant to be a reasonable balance of the rights of people to recreate while also protecting lakes and shoreland.
The resolution encourages the Wisconsin legislature to “engage in meaningful discussions” to set standards for enhanced wakes of at least 500 feet from shore and in at least 20 feet of water.
The board debated lowering it from 500 feet or removing the wording about distance from shore altogether, but ultimately passed the resolution as presented.
The language in the resolution also focused on regulating enhanced wakes rather than wake boats themselves.
One supervisor asked Sadauskas if people were coming to her department saying wake boats were causing erosion.
“What we hear quite a bit is just people coming in saying, ‘We need to do something. We’re losing footage of shoreline due to increased wake and recreational activity.’ I’m not saying it’s necessarily that,” said Sadauskas. “Now, there is a lot of people that do say, ‘We have wake boats and we’re seeing the biggest waves coming from wake boats.’ But their concern is that their shoreline is getting beat up and they’re losing frontage.”
The advisory resolution also asks the legislature to give local governments local control and to take the transfer of aquatic invasive species into consideration when it is debating legislation on this issue.
It was passed 13 to 6 with two absent.
The resolution does not change any wake ordinances in Oneida County. It is an advisory referendum that will be sent to Madison to convey the county’s stance on the issue to lawmakers.
